Visit the Ashland, Central Point, Shady Cove, Medford, or Rogue River Library in the coming weeks to pick up a Take & Make kit to give a “shout-out to the leaders in your community. This kit will give you the supplies needed to write a thank you note to whomever you think needs one right now. Maybe it’s a doctor, fire fighter, garbage collector, or anyone else! Hang it in your window, or stick it in your yard to let your community know that you’re thinking of them.
If you can’t make it to one of these branches, this project can easily be replicated at home. As you can see, the Take & Make itself is pretty basic:
All you really need is some kind of paper to create a sign and whatever art supplies you have on hand.
My handwriting is a little messy, so I chose to write my message in a Word document and then printed out the pages. I tried to make the font big enough so it could be seen from a distance.
After that, I cut out my message and arranged it on my poster board. When I was satisfied with how it looked, I glued them on.
I used a pencil to draw on some decoration and then traced over them with a marker.
The kit came with paints in pots, but I like add a few globs to a plate or some kind of palette. This gives me an opportunity to play around with mixing the colors.
When the paint is dry, you can add some creative embellishments. Anything you have on hand will do. I used those little dots that folks put prices on at yard sales and tissue paper.
When you’re done beautifying your sign, you can add some kind of stick to the back of it. The kit comes with a painter’s mixing stick, so that’s what I used. You’ll need some heavy duty tape to secure it to the back of your sign. (If you don’t have sturdy tape, stop by your local library and we can share some with you.)
When you’re done, pick a spot where your sign will be seen.
Another option is to display your sign in a window. At the end of the day, you just want to put it somewhere it will be seen. You might get lucky and we’ll take picture of your sign and post it on our social media page (with your privacy protected of course!). Feel free to reach out to the library to let us know where your sign is.
It’s a great feeling to let people know that they make a difference in your life and that they are appreciated. With that in mind, I’d like to reach out to all of you. Your support and kind words during the past year made such a difference for many of us who work in our local libraries. So, thank you, dear library patrons, you are appreciated!